user770022
user770022

Reputation: 2959

Show the structure of the table in SQL

Can someone explain things a little better to me? How do I show the structure of a table? I run the select * from table; and of course it displays all that's in the table. But, I am being asked to show the structure of the table. What does that mean, and what is the command?

Here's my table below.

SQL> select * from dept;

DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
---------- -------------- -------------
    10 ACCOUNTING     NEW YORK
    20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
    30 SALES          CHICAGO
    40 OPERATIONS     BOSTON

 SQL>

Upvotes: 10

Views: 65489

Answers (3)

27P
27P

Reputation: 1475

You can use sqlplus command describe <SCHEMA_OWNER.TABLE>

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14357/ch12019.htm

Upvotes: 1

sribin
sribin

Reputation: 231

Try this out: describe table_name

Upvotes: 23

Michael Berkowski
Michael Berkowski

Reputation: 270617

To list columns and data types, I typically use

SELECT COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE FROM ALL_TAB_COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME='your_table_name';

It's been a while since I've worked with Oracle though. ALL_TAB_COLUMNS might actually be ALL_TAB_COLS.

If you need to display the full CREATE TABLE statement, see How to get Oracle create table statement in SQL*Plus

Upvotes: 19

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